When Batman - The Animated Series premiered oh so long ago, it was greeted with open arms and well wishes, but the obvious comparisons to the old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons were bandied about all of fandom, which left everyone to wonder, “Where’s Superman?”

“Where’s Superman,” indeed.

Naturally a Superman cartoon followed with a cast of characters that all seemed to have even sharper corners and blockier fingers. Yes, Superman - The Animated Series made its premiere. In sharp contrast to the Batman series, Supes was all about color and action and even sillier damned costumes (Sweet CHRIST those Kryptionian Council members!!! The shoulder pads would have made Joan Collins blush).

Not nearly as popular as the Bats series, Superman was at least able to stand on it’s own with an equally solid voice cast, as well as a stable of writers that consisted of many who were also involved with Bats. The Superman series may not have been as drama-based as Batman, but many of the stories were just as clever, and certainly as much fun, if not a shade moreso due to the lack of brooding. Superman’s real parents were killed, no one understands him, he lives a lie… but he’s pretty well adjusted about it all, so don’t you worry about him, folks. Let’s make pancakes!

Perhaps the biggest drawback to Superman - The Animated Series was the animation itself. Batman had more than it’s fair share of second-rate animation, but it was cyclical. For every four poorly animated episodes, we got two decently animated episodes and one smoothly animated episode (Don’t quote me on the ratio, I’m just talkin’ out my ass here). Superman never gave us that smoothly animated episode. The bastard. You would think at least the three-part series starter would have been given the budget to impress, but alas corners were obviously cut and the animation never soared to the heights that our blue-spandexed hero flew himself.

As stated above, however, the cast was top notch. The Wings-meister himself, Tim Daily, played Superman/Clark Kent, Dana Delany was even more delectable than her usual self as the feisty Lois Lane, and B-Movie GOD Clancy Brown provided the voice of Lex “Who Loves Ya’ baby” Luthor. All very brilliantly cast with no sleepwalking towards a paycheck among them. For the duration of the series, these were THE Superman characters to me. So much so, that I still wish Brown was playing Luthor in the new Superman movie instead of that Kevin Spacey fellow.

Anyway, this two disc set is comprised of a one-sided disc and a two-sided disc which all contain eighteen episodes. A strange choice since the first season, three episode opener included, was thirteen episodes long. The episodes are as follows:

Disc 1:
The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1, The Last Son Of Krypton Part 2, The Last Son Of Krypton Part 3, Fun And Games, A Little Piece Of Home and Feeding Time

Disc 2:
The Way Of All Flesh, Stolen Memories, The Main Man Part 1, The Main Man Part 2,
My Girl, Tools Of The Trade, Two's A Crowd, The Prometheon, Blasts From The Past Part 1, Blasts From The Past Part 2, Livewire and Speed Demons


How's It Look, Smart Guy?
The show was animated in full frame, therefore so are the episodes as they appear on this disc. Transferred much crisper looking than the first Batman boxed set; the flaws in animation are made all the more evident. I am sure that most of this is due to the inherent properties of rushed overseas cel animation and less to do with the age of the source material, but the digital video medium is not very kind to this series in respect to its shortcomings. The colors are bright and snappy and I detect no ghosting that usually happens with quickly transferred animation. So, basically, you get to see the dirt and scratches as clearly as you possibly can.

How's It Sound, Ya bum?
It’s 2.0 English Dolby Surround Stereo and that’s about it. All sounds are pretty much mixed at the same level and no sweetening is noticed. It’s a shame because for a show where the main character gets punched through a wall every other episode, you would think we’d get some cool rumbling sounds out of the experience, but nada. The sound is nothing dynamic but it’s serviceable. Low end sounds are rather light, but that is pretty much par for the course when dealing with a 2.0 mix. There is also the option to watch these episodes in 2.0 French or 2.0 Spanish. Just try to fight the urge to hear Lex Luthor in Spanish. I dare ya.’

You Think I Just Wanted The Movie, Pal?
There is a COMMENTARY TRACK on four of the episodes. The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1, Stolen Memories, The Main Man and Tools of the Trade have vocal support by Bruce Timm (Producer), Paul Dini (Producer), Alan Burnett (Producer), Dan Riba (Director), Curt Geda (Director), and Glen Murakami (Art Director). All these fellas appreciate the opportunity to leave their mark on such an iconic character and little to no ego is evident. They come prepared and never leave the listener hangin.’ Certainly worth a listen, and at 23 minutes a session you won’t feel like you should be doing something else.

Two FEATURETTES: Superman: Learning to Fly and Building the Mythology: Superman’s Supportive Cast. Both are fairly flimsy and pretty much just scratch the surface of the topics. Learning to Fly is perhaps the better of the two, just for the geek quotient alone. You too can sit on the couch with your mate and say “Hey. Look, Honey!! That’s ______!” to nothing but blank stares.

A POP-UP TRIVIA TRACK is available for the episode A Little Piece of Home and even though I am a sucker for this sort of thing, I do have a gripe in this instance. Those little tracks of information are great and usually have a lot less fat than your average commentary track, and such is the case with this one as well. However, the brains who

designed the option for this particular disc decided to have it slide up from the bottom of the frame and take up almost 1⁄4 of the screen in the process,

making the episode very difficult to watch. A simple line or two of text at a time is all I ask for, people. Is that so hard?

Bring Us On Home, Brother
Superman is an iconic character and aside from the first two Superman movies this is the only incarnation that properly captured his appeal. If you only cared about the Batman series, you won’t be disappointed. Give it a try. It’s yummy. Likewise if you were too young to fully process the coolness and intelligence of this series when it was originally shown and all you know of the animated Superman is the Justice League cartoon, there is no reason for you to turn your nose up at this set. I know I might be a little soft in the head wishing the set was five episodes shorter, just so the first season got it’s own boxed set, but the second season episodes added are all quality and in order so it’s a useless complaint. You get 18 episodes plus some okay extras for @ $20 and that’s the most important bit.